Hello' Support Group
by Eternal Love Song
Summary: Loki has known that Thor is soulmate for his entire life, but he's kept this secret, afraid of his brother's reaction. Until the day when Thor decides to go to a support group for people that haven't found their soulmates.


Loki did not want to be here. The room was a reasonable size, but it was far too small for the amount of people that were being crammed into it. This was entirely stupid. Why he let Thor talk him into attending, he couldn't say. There was a table of comfort food in the corner. Cookies and hot chocolate and tea and tiny bowls of ice cream, the kind of snacks you moped over while staring despondently at the black mocking text that was on your arm.

"This is dumb," Loki said under his breath.

"It's your fault," Fandral replied. He was standing too close, which was why he was the one that heard him.

Thor was standing across the room, awkwardly trying to introduce himself in a way that avoided too many common phrases. It was something that Loki did almost naturally. That was the consequence of being a wordsmith. Thor really should have learned from his mistakes by now. Or at least feel guilty enough to put more thought into his standard greeting as was encouraged.

Loki crossed his arms and slumped down in his chair, impatient for this stupid meeting to start. Fandral sat beside him with a little more willingness. "Three words and we could go home right now."

"I already used three words," Loki grumbled with a pout.

"Wrong three," Fandral replied. He slid his fingers down Loki's arms, pulling at the edge of the gloves Loki was wearing to keep his forearm covered. "Or you could just take this thing off…"

Loki snatched his arms away from his friend, glaring intensely. "No!" He hissed.

Fandral shrugged. "You don't have bite my head off. I'm just giving you options."

Loki looked away from Fandral and toward Thor as he pouted more. There were a million supports groups like this one all over. There were internet groups, survivors clubs, all centered around bemoaning the fate of not being able to find your soulmate. All focused on trying to get together with strangers and comforting each other over not having your soulmate.

Loki rested his hand on his arm. He had always thought it was stupid, these groups. But maybe that was only because he had always known who his soulmate was. The words that were set into his skin, that were set into everyone's skin, the first words that your soulmate would speak to you, was something that Loki had kept hidden nearly all his life. At first because he was just embarrassed at the implication and then because he knew without a doubt who his soulmate was and couldn't bring himself to say anything.

This particular support group was one of the more common. The 'Hello' Support group, for that subset of people that had a common greeting on their arm and therefore no discerning way to tell who it was that was suppose to be meant for them, Some people had taken to giving common greeting to anyone that they didn't want to be their soulmate, just to lessen the possibility that they would end up with someone they didn't want. As if that was how it worked. You didn't stop being soulmates with someone just because you didn't know about. Others tried to force a connecting by responding to people with whatever words were written into their skin. As if that improved their chances.

"You know he would understand, right?" Fandral asked.

"What?" Loki asked, coming out of his thoughts.

"You were staring at him again," Fandral admitted.

"I was not!" Loki replied in offence.

Fandral gave him a look that Loki chose to ignore. "He would understand," Fandral said again. "He loves you."

"Not like that!" Loki insisted. He pressed his hand tighter to his arms as if he thought he could will the words away. Well, it was only one word. [Brother.] At first, Loki had thought that it was some out of context, situational thing. Just because it was the first thing someone said to you, didn't mean it was their 'greeting' to you. Still, he'd kept his arm hidden. It didn't take long to realize that Thor was his soulmate. It took much longer to accept it, though. And even still, the thought of telling Thor was… daunting at best.

"You know it doesn't have to be romantic…" Fandral began.

Loki made a painful whining in his throat without meaning to. Fandral didn't laugh or give him an odd look or anything, but Loki still felt the need to hide his face his hands. "I know that," He said softly. "I'm aware that it need not be…" But that was another reason that Loki hesitated to tell Thor. He did not want to find that Thor wanted a platonic relationship. Doing nothing was better than being denied. Or worse, being rejected.

Fandral placed a hand on his shoulder. "I know that's not what you want, but if you don't say something, you'll end up that way regardless."

"I know that!" Loki hissed. "I don't need you stating the obvious!"

"Clearly you do," Fandral said with conviction. "Otherwise you wouldn't be over here moping."

"Who asked you, anyway," Loki groaned.

"Alright, Let's get this started."

"Finally," Loki groaned.

Thor came to sit beside him. He turned to smile at Loki, but it was visibly strained. The burden was clear in his eyes. Thor wasn't one to be alone very well and he wanted to avoid a situation where he fell in love with someone and then met his soulmate. Those situations usually end with one or all parties a little unhappy and Thor was the sort of person that always wanted everyone to smile.

"Are you really going to make us sit through this meeting?" Fandral whispered questioningly in his ear.

Loki bit his lip. "It can't be that bad."

Loki was completely lying. He was pretty sure this would be torture.

"Who want's to go first?"

"I'll go first. I'm Clint," The man said. "So, I've had this generic greeting on my arm for, like, ever obviously. So for a while I greeted people like that, too. I am mean, I saw it everyday, so it only seemed natural." He shrugged. "And then I thought, maybe I should spend more time talking to people with other words like mine, but that's dumb. It's not like we have the same word or anything. I mean, we could, but that's not really likely. So, like, should I even bother waiting for my soulmate? Should I just start dating someone else and just… see what happens?"

Loki could not sit through another five minutes of this, let alone the whole meeting. He couldn't have people putting these thoughts in Thor's head about giving up or dating or…

Loki sighed. He would have to have to tell Thor wouldn't he?

He leaned over to whisper in Thor's ear. "Thor, I need to speak to you."

"Now?" Thor replied.

"Yes."

Thor frowned, but followed Loki when he rose.

"Finally," Fandral said as they passed him. Loki glared, but his friend didn't pay any attention to it.

As soon as they were outside of the room, Loki lost his nerve. He kept his back to Thor, couldn't stop himself from tugging at the top edge of his gloves, debating. Thor placed his hand on his shoulder.

"Loki? What is wrong?"

Loki bit his tongue, not sure how to get the words out or which words to even use. It was not a situation he found himself in often anymore, but somehow Thor could always do this to him.

"Did I… upset you?" Thor asked tentatively. "I am sorry, I should not have brought you, here." Thor let out a heavy sigh as he released Loki's shoulder. "I know that you have never been overly concerned about finding your soulmate-"

"I'm your soulmate!" Loki blurted out, turning to Thor. Loki's eyes were possibly as large as Thor's were. Loki had kept his arm hidden as long as he could remember. Thor didn't know what what his soulmate mark said. Thor had always assumed that Loki didn't care to have anything to do with a soulmate and that was why he had hidden it. He couldn't have known that it was because Loki already knew who his soulmate was and hadn't known how to tell him.

"What?" Thor repeated hoarsely. Thor's expression turned sad as he said, "Do not jest, Loki. You know that this is important to me."

Loki's heartbeat faster. He snatched glove off his arm and held it out to Thor, displaying the word clearly. He needed Thor to believe him. He hadn't realized how important it was, how important it would be, to finally tell Thor and be believed by him. Loki stared at Thor intensely as Thor's eyes took in, for the first time, the word "Brother" written on his arm. "I am not jesting, Thor," Loki said in a whisper.

Thor approached cautiously, slowly reaching out to touch the letters. Loki shivered and Thor gasped at the contact. It was like a spark ran between them. Loki had felt this before, though softer and less intense, when he touched Thor. It was something that he had taken as natural before he realized the cause. This, though, this was on an entirely different scale. Almost without meaning to, Thor's fingers curled around Loki's arm, around the word "brother" that was the first word Thor had ever said to him. Then Thor took Loki's other hand, removing the glove from that one as well, before pulling that hand to Thor's arm. The word "Hi" was on his arm. Something that could be a common greeting, or the sound that a baby might make when they were very small.

Thor was a few years older than Loki, they had been together as long as either of them could remember. He had never really been apart from Loki, had always made Loki a priority. They always been close, questionably close at times, and though Thor never thought anything of it, Loki had thought of it from the moment he had realized what he and Thor were. Loki had worried about Thor's reaction so long, it had never occurred to him to that it was be as easy as everything else between them.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Thor asked him.

Loki looked away. His heart was still beating too fast and his words wanted to stick in his throat. "I was… afraid."

Thor pressed his forehead to Loki's and Loki felt himself relax. "Oh, Loki. You do not need to be afraid to tell me anything. Not ever."

"But we're… people will…"

"Since when is it like you to care about what other's think?" Thor questioned. He smiled at Loki, refusing to release or even relent the grip he had on his brother's arm. "We are soulmates! No one can take that away from us. We are brothers and they cannot take that away from us either!"

Loki met Thor's eyes, shining with more happiness than Loki had ever seen them. Thor clearly meant his every word. Then, Thor pulled Loki closer and dropped a light kiss on Loki's lips. Loki blushed bright red. "Thor!"

Thor laughed heartily. "I much prefer you looking like that than afraid," Thor told him. "This doesn't have to change to anything," Thor told him.

"It could change everything," Loki replied. He didn't know whether it was fear or anticipation in his voice.

"It only changes what we want it to," Thor insisted. "I love you, Loki. You know that. You've always known that."

That was true. Thor was the singular thing in Loki's life that he considered omnipresent. A constant. Thor was a thing and Thor loved him. Loki let out a breath and leaned his head on Thor's chest, letting his tension out with it. Thor wrapped his arms around Loki and held him tightly.

"So can we get out of here now?" Fandral asked from the doorway. "You're done now, right?"

Loki laughed as he pulled slightly away from Thor. "Yes, we are done here."

"Wait, did you know?" Thor questioned Fandral.

Fandral rolled his eyes. "Of course I did."

"Let's go home, Thor," Loki said. "I believe we have better things we could be doing."

Thor smiled. "I agree."

Fandral began walking ahead of them. "You two are going to be insufferable now, aren't you?"

Loki snorted. "As if we were not already."


End file.
